Bob CollinsA sweet moment after last weekend’s Minnesota Class A State Tournament semifinals was a sobering reminder that the carnage caused by distracted drivers in Minnesota can be found just about anywhere these days.
The Blooming Prairie football team — they don’t call them the Awesome Blossoms for nothing — had just been beaten 37-to-7 by BOLD (Bird Island-Olivia) when it called Jaxson Harberts, 12, to the U.S. Bank Stadium field to hold their trophy.
And last but not least, the @BPPSBlossoms football players had Jaxson Harbert come out and take a photo with them and their state plaque. Jaxson got to see the entire game form the sidelines. pic.twitter.com/jc4rbM28dt
— Eric Johnson (@EricJohnsonADH) November 17, 2018
Harberts is a victim of distracted driving. In September, his mother — Rachel, 43, and sister, Emerson, 8 — died after the car that all three were riding in was rear-ended by a Hummer, driven by Tanner R. Kruckeberg, of Dodge Center, Minn. He told authorities he was putting his cellphone away at the time.
He had enough traffic violations to predict that sooner or later, he was bound to kill someone.
Rachel was a first-grade teacher in the Blooming Prairie district as well as the volleyball coach for the junior high school.
Jaxson was in the hospital with severe injuries until early November.
This is the part of distracted driving we don’t get to see very often: a 12-year-old learning to walk again after his mother and sister are killed.
In its investigation last night, KARE 11 asked if distracted drivers are “getting off easy.”
They are.
